Original reporting on little-known U.S. government funded foreign aid projects, so-called "drug war" initiatives, and overseas business subsidies.

Nigeria

07/31/2013

Bureaucracy proposed to overcome Kenyan obstacles

President Obama’s multi-billion-dollar “Power Africa”
initiative aims to double citizen access to electricity and other power sources
across Sub-Saharan Africa. But it plays down the creation of a new
public-private bureaucracy needed to overcome the pervasive corruption and
incompetence of African governments and power utilities.

A significant portion of the Kenya-based endeavor is
designed simply to administer the program. Segments include efforts to sway
public and congressional opinion in favor of the initiative, according to a new
planning document U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor located through routine database research.

The U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID,
will hire a contractor or contractors primarily to persuade African officials
to change regulatory governance of power distribution, explains the draft
Statement of Work, or SOW. A corresponding agency goal is to encourage, with
contractor assistance, the escalation of private-sector investment in the
region.

The USAID chief of party, or COP, and deputy COP, “who will
be the overall managers of the contracts,” will reserve 10 percent of program
funding for those government managerial functions, the document says.

The project’s overarching goal “is to remove the power
constraint to economic growth and spur trade and investment, while mitigating
long-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trajectories,” the draft SOW says.
“Power Africa will serve as a catalyst that will spark a transformation in
Africa’s energy and power sectors.

“The immediate outcome will be increased supply of and
access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable power for millions of Africans
and the enhanced responsible and transparent management of energy resources.”

Put in simpler terms, despite Obama’s ambitious and
confident proclamations about the endeavor during his recent Africa trip, the
document simultaneously affirms his vision and acknowledges the great
difficulties the U.S. faces in executing such reforms.

Among other factors, the weak regulatory, policy and legal
environments – made worse by continent-wide “corrupt and non-transparent
bidding and contractual procedures” – serve as constraints to the sort of
international investment Obama wants to bring about, the SOW says.

Political instability, a lengthy history of state-owned
utilities and the “fear of change and competition” likewise deter private
sector project-development and investment.

Consequently, the Obama administration expects U.S.
taxpayers over the next five years to commit $7 billion toward stabilizing and
correcting the investment roadblocks.

Whereas USAID will provide $285 million in technical
assistance to remedy what it admits are typically corrupt and often incompetent
governmental bodies and utility providers, the administration will direct the
remainder of the funds through other U.S. agencies.

Among the entities are the Export-Import Bank of the United
States, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the U.S. Trade &
Development Agency – entities that the Cato Institute says should be
“terminated” because they largely serve as monumental vehicles of “corporate
welfare waste.”

Reminiscent of a prior scheme to sway journalists into
providing favorable coverage of its Kenyan aid program – a document for which the
agency abruptly blocked public access following this writer's coverage of the matter – the USAID prime
contractor also must provide communications and outreach support that will be
“directed at the American public, U.S. Congress” and elsewhere, the draft SOW
says.

The agency kept the program quiet for a year before
repackaging it with decreased emphasis, according to publicly available
documents, on the propaganda angle, as the Monitor recently reported.

According to the Power Africa draft SOW, the selected vendor
must devote 20 percent of its efforts under the prime contract towards
“institutional support” for the program coordinator’s office.

Communications and outreach activities represent just one
component of institutional support, which also entails tracking and coordinating
activities among “Power Africa implementers and stakeholders” such as other
U.S. agencies, host country governments and non-governmental organizations, the
document says.

Although USAID’s East Africa Regional Mission in Nairobi,
Kenya, is home to the coordinator’s office, Power Africa also has plans for
Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda.

This article originally was published via WND.com (July 23, 2012). Under agreement with the editor, rights have reverted back to the author, Steve Peacock.

07/29/2013

President Obama’s multi-billion-dollar “Power Africa” initiative aims
to double citizen access to electricity and other power sources across
Sub-Saharan Africa. But it plays down the creation of a new
public-private bureaucracy needed to overcome the pervasive corruption
and incompetence of African governments and power utilities.

A significant portion of the Kenya-based endeavor is designed simply to administer the program. Segments include efforts to sway public and congressional opinion in favor of the initiative, according to a new planning document WND
located through routine database research.

05/04/2013

The extrication of U.S. Special Forces injured in African military
ventures soon will provide contractors with an additional revenue
stream, now that the Obama administration plans to keep such vendors on
stand-by, 24/7, for cross-continent airborne mobilization.

While the Pentagon’s reliance on private vendors to support
international military operations is nothing new, plans to station such
providers specific to such a large swath of Africa does deviate from
prior procurement actions.

The Trans-Sahara Short Take-Off and Landing Airlift Support
initiative will rely on outside assistance in the event that soldiers of
U.S. Special Operations Command-Africa sustain traumatic medical
emergencies, thereby requiring urgent transportation out of hostile
zones.

Indeed, SOCOM-Africa places such urgency on its anticipated use of
such Casualty Evacuation, or CASEVAC, services that, at a minimum,
contractors must be capable of launching an airborne response with only a
three hour notice.

Despite this urgency, the vendor securing that contract largely will
engage in cargo- and personnel airlift activities, plus a limited number
of air-drop missions.

The “most likely” locations for such operations are Algeria, Burkina
Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria,
Senegal and Tunisia, according to the U.S. Transportation Command
solicitation.

Kenya, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Uganda also fall within the Primary
Operating Area, or POA, of this endeavor, the USTRANSCOM document says.

SOCOM-Africa will enable this expedited response-capability by
stationing the contractor in Burkina Faso, a landlocked West African
nation, it says.

A search of prior Tactical Combat Casualty Care and CASEVAC
solicitations available via the FedBizOpps system shows that USSOCOM and
other Department of Defense units typically and primarily seek only
training and equipment.

Rather than soliciting continent-wide provision of emergency medical
and flight assistance, those contracting actions generally have sought
assistance to enable combatant commands to provide themselves with such
medical assistance.

One USSOCOM contracting action representative of the government’s
acquisition of CASEVAC “kits” and trauma-management training, for
example, described a critical need for Special Operations combat forces to obtain new techniques and technology in support of “ongoing operations worldwide.”

Another Special Ops solicitation
from late last year revealed a $40 million, two-year contract extension
awarded to Tribalco, LLC, a Bethesda, Maryland-based maker of CASEVAC
and other “soldier-survival” equipment.

USTRANSCOM did not disclose an estimated cost of the Africa-centric CASEVAC procurement.

In other U.S. military procurement actions specific to Africa:

The Defense Logistics Agency on April 12 issued a request for bids
to provide the U.S. Air Force with 547,500 gallons of No. 2 diesel fuel
“for ongoing deliveries to Niamey Airport, Niger, (Africa).”

The U.S. Naval Facilities Engineering Command, or NAVFAC, announced it intends
to spend up to $25 million for power plant upgrades at Camp Lemonnier,
Djibouti (CLDJ), Africa; however, despite acknowledging in an earlier
document the estimated cost of the Caterpillar generators, a partly
redacted no-bid Justification & Approval document blacked out the
final award amount. It offered no explanation for the redaction .

NAVFAC additionally began soliciting bids to build a cold-storage
food warehouse and a separate galley to store P-218 anti-malarial drug
reserves, representing another potential $25 million contracting
endeavor at CLDJ.

NAVFAC on April 12 revealed
that it awarded a $33 million contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root to
“perform base operating services at CLDJ and occasionally other
locations within Africa.” Despite announcing the KBR contract this month, the Navy unit actually awarded it in December, the document shows.

This article originally appeared via WND April 28. Under prior agreement, rights have reverted back to the author, Steve Peacock.

04/28/2013

The extrication of U.S. Special Forces injured in African military
ventures soon will provide contractors with an additional revenue
stream, now that the Obama administration plans to keep such vendors on
stand-by, 24/7, for cross-continent airborne mobilization.

While the Pentagon’s reliance on private vendors to support
international military operations is nothing new, plans to station such
providers specific to such a large swath of Africa does deviate from
prior procurement actions.

The Trans-Sahara Short Take-Off and Landing Airlift Support
initiative will rely on outside assistance in the event that soldiers of
U.S. Special Operations Command-Africa sustain traumatic medical
emergencies, thereby requiring urgent transportation out of hostile
zones.

12/12/2012

A $20 million contract to spark "private sector competitiveness" in Ethiopia has been awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). As U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor reported earlier this year, the agency's Finance and Business Services (FaBS) Project seeks to increase Ethiopian industry's access to financing in order to drive "sustainable economic growth"while reducing poverty (Monitor, April 26, 2012).

CARANA Corp., an Arlington, Virginia-based consulting company, will carry out the project for USAID over the next five years. CARANA in October separately secured a $12 million USAID contract to execute the Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport (NEXTT) program, whose goal "is to support the Nigerian government's efforts to expand trade
domestically... and improve its
efficiency so that trade, particularly in agricultural products, can
provide inclusive economic growth and development of Nigeria."

FOR FURTHER REPORTING ON THE U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, PLEASE VISIT THE MONITOR'S USAID PAGE.

10/15/2012

The following news briefs involve some recent
procurement actions of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

USAID awarded an $11.8 million contract to the Arlington,
Virginia-based CARANA Corporation to carry out the Nigeria Expanded Trade and
Transport, or NEXTT, Program, which seeks to expand domestic trade and to improve
the Nigerian government’s efficiency “so that trade, particularly in
agricultural products, can provide inclusive economic growth and development of
Nigeria.” (Contract Award #AID-620-C-13-00002) (Solicitation #SOL-620-12-000001)

Deloitte Consulting LLP secured a contract capped at $15 million
to provide service in USAID’s Catalyzing Clean Energy in Bangladesh, or CCEB, project.
Deloitte will help “support energy sector development for energy security,
economic growth, and climate change mitigation” over the next five years. Deloitte
specifically will provide training to the Bangladesh Ministry of Power, Energy
and Mineral Resources and other institutions to develop and implement the
Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan, or BCCSAP. (Contract award #AID-388-C-13-00001) (Solicitation #SOL-388-12-000006).

05/25/2012

The violence in northern Nigeria is mistakenly viewed as a religious conflict rather than simply a tribal dispute over land, according to the Obama administration.

Despite the ongoing Muslim destruction of churches and the slaughter of Christians – including many murdered during worship services – the U.S. Agency for International Development claims that the misunderstandings make it difficult to administer aid programs.

USAID, therefore, has launched a program titled Project PEACE – an acronym for Programming Effectively Against Conflict and Extremism.

PEACE says it will hire contractors to help the agency analyze the “true causes of conflict and consequently provide more effective humanitarian and conflict-resolution assistance, according to planning documents that WND located via database research.

The cost of Obama’s new “knowledge generation, dissemination and management” initiative is $600 million.

The unveiling of PEACE comes as the slaughter of Nigerian Christians is on the rise.

As WND reported earlier this month, an international Christian ministry says Muslims recently killed hundreds of Christians gathering for worship.

Patrick Sookhdeo, international director for Barnabas Fund, said at the time: “The simple act of going to church on a Sunday has become a perilous one for Christians in many parts of Nigeria.”

Indeed, Nigerian media have reported that the Muslim jihadist group Boko Haram has pledged to “eradicate Christianity.”

The USAID documents, however, contend that Boko Haram simply shares with other groups anger “over the nation’s poor governance.”

Efforts to “improve state service capacities and working to enhance the service delivery capacity of local governments” would help reduce such anger and resultant conflicts, the agency says.

The Statement of Work governing the PEACE procurement does not say that USAID specifically plans to intervene in Nigeria. However, an accompanying guidance document explicitly cites Nigeria’s Christian-Muslim conflict as a “case study” for Obama’s global endeavor.

Supposed misconceptions about such strife interfere with attempts to prevent or mitigate problems, according to the USAID Conflict Assessment Framework 2.0 document.

“Hence, the first task of conflict management is to distinguish the symptoms of the conflict from its sources. … In other words, the sources of conflict must be addressed, just as a doctor tries to treat the disease and not just the symptoms.”

The guidance document – on which USAID requires prospective contractors to base future service proposals – then addresses the contentious state of affairs between Christian and Muslim communities in Jos, Nigeria.

Prior to mentioning, however vaguely, the frequent “clash in episodes of violence,” USAID alludes to the tendency of parties in conflict to dishonestly adopt “tactics and positions to advance their interests.”

“In some cases, particularly when the interests of key actors differ from those they claim to represent, a key actor may purposefully hide or deflect their intentions through rhetoric,” the agency says.

Specific to Nigeria, it then dismisses the religious element of the hostility.

“Yet, although the symptom of conflict is intercommunal violence along sectarian lines, the source of the conflict will not be found in theology. Rather, the conflict’s source [is] competition for land between a group that perceives itself as indigenous to the area and another seen as more recent settlers.”

Attempts to focus on the theological nature of the fighting have failed to halt the ongoing clash, since those parties purportedly ignore the underlying motivation for feuding, according to USAID: “Those who perceive the conflict as a religious war have been unable to gain traction in resolving the conflict because, at its root, it is more about the governance of contested resources.”

Grievances such as this “almost always precede physical acts of violence,” the document says, hinting that the indigenous Christian majority is the primary source of tensions with the Muslim Hausa minority.

“For example, in Nigeria, control of the city of Jos has long been a particular source of tension between the Muslim ‘settler’ Hausas and the largely Christian ‘indigenes.’

“Although the Hausas are a minority in Plateau state, they are the largest ethnic group in Nigeria overall. Thus, many Berom and other Christian groups voice fears of Hausa domination at the national level.

“Meanwhile, the Hausa minority harbors similar fears of being forced out of Jos.”

Both sides have subsequently spread “rumors” of imminent threats as well as “allegations of silent killings, weapons stockpiling, and so on,” the document continues.

“Tensions are so high that any minor incident between two individuals across the religious divide could escalate rapidly, facilitated by the barrage of hate messages and other alarmist texts sent across extensive cellular networks.

“Occasional outbreaks of violence do in fact occur.”

Contractors selected under Project PEACE would, among other tasks, analyze the historical and cultural contexts of ongoing or developing conflicts.

They also would be responsible for tapping into existing USAID resources – distributing reports on lessons learned from prior interventions, for example, or training USAID personnel in how to develop and implement new assistance programs as conflicts emerge worldwide.

In addition to ensuring that USAID program responses “are informed by an understanding of what is required for effective peacebuilding,” contractors would attempt to identify “bright spots” in the conflict.

Despite the imposition of Islamic law, or Shariah, in 12 northern Nigerian states in 1999-2000, the governor of Kaduna state brokered a political agreement between Christians Muslims that remains in force.

“As Christian-Muslim clashes have raged in nearby states, Kaduna has faced tensions and occasional fighting, but has remained relatively peaceful in the face of extremist provocations.

“One neighborhood in southern Kaduna, Barnawa, is particularly remarkable for having remained peaceful throughout the 2000 and 2002 crises,” the government documents state.

“In both instances, Christians and Muslims worked together to protect each other and to prevent outsiders who were intent on engaging in conflict from coming to their neighborhood.”

It is this sort of “bright spot” that contractors would use as a starting point to develop assistance programs and foster peace among groups in conflict and their governmental leaders, USAID believes.

USAID is holding a “pre-proposal conference” May 31 to discuss the program with interested contractors.

This article originally appeared on WND.com. Under agreement with WND, rights have reverted back to the author, Steve Peacock.

05/19/2012

The U.S. Department of State must explain to Congress if it fails to designate Boko Haram, an Islamic jihadist group, as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization," or FTO, according to amended legislation a House panel approved Thursday.

The House Appropriations Committee by unanimous voice vote supported the measure, which Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) offered as an amendment to the State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill (FY 2013). The panel likewise approved the $40 billion State & Foreign Ops funding bill, which it sent to the full House for consideration.

Boko Haram, which means ‘‘People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet’s Teachings andJihad,’’ has carried out attacks on Nigerian Christians, hundreds whom have died in recent weeks. Although Dent did not specify the following, State reportedly not only has failed to designate the group as an FTO, but refers to the conflict between Nigerian Christians and Muslims as a fight over land rather than theology.

In April 2012, the State Department warned American citizens in Nigeria that the group may be preparing additional attacks on Abuja sites frequented by Westerners. Recent intelligence reports also indicate Boko Haram is expanding its coordination with the Al Qaeda terrorist network through a growing relationship with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Although a report would be necessitated under the amendment even if State ever decides to bestow FTO designation upon the group, the amendment specifies that "if the Secretary of State determines that Boko Haram does not meet such criteria, the Secretary shall submit a report with a detailed justification regarding which designation criteria of section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act have not been met."

Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), chairwoman of the State & Foreign Ops subcommittee, as well Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), ranking member of the subcommittee, separately said they had questions about the amendment, but in the meantime pledged to give it their support.

The Dent amendment would require the Secretary of State to "submit a detailed report" to congressional committees with jurisdiction over such matters.

In the House this would include the Appropriations Committee , Homeland Security Committee, Armed Services Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

On the Senate side, reports would be submitted to the Appropriations Committee , Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the Armed Services Committee, Foreign Relations Committee , and the Select Committee on Intelligence.

05/10/2012

Up to $20 million could get infused into a project whose goal is to reverse the effects of “decades of authoritarian leadership in Nigeria,” the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) revealed today.

According to a draft Statement of Work (SOW), the Strengthening Advocacy and Civic Engagement program, as the agency calls it, will hire a contractor to help achieve the agency’s goals:

through strategic partnerships between civil society coalitions and networks on the one hand, and critical stakeholders in Nigerian society on the other. The latter may include the media, reform minded Nigerian government institutions or representatives, the private sector, as well as other influential public figures. The program will also explicitly aim to engage marginalized populations, such as women, youth, and the disabled in the process and emphasize the importance of leadership and innovation.